Anschutz Entertainment Group

The city-owned Los Angeles Convention Center entered a new era Tuesday when a new general manager was named by the private company hired to run the facility. Anschutz Entertainment Group, which won a contract to run the center in October, named Brad Gessner to the post. He most recently served as general manager of the 2.6-million-square-foot San Diego Convention Center for six years. The L.A. Convention Center offers 720,000 square feet of exhibit space, 46,000 square feet in two event halls and 102,000 square feet of column-free space in a sky-lighted meeting room.

Last year, Los Angeles entertainment giant AEG weathered a major corporate shake-up, endured a six-month trial spotlighting its role in the last days of Michael Jackson and fell short in its efforts to bring L.A. a pro football team. Even so, the company - owner of Staples Center, L.A. Live and the Los Angeles Kings hockey team - seems to be on the rebound. Although AEG has taken a decidedly low profile in Southern California in recent months, the company has seen most of its worldwide operations surge.

He got the bug early, walking precincts in his Los Angeles neighborhood at the age of 14, talking politics with aplomb, prompting adults to marvel and agree: John Pérez was going places. Now, after his rookie year as a Sacramento lawmaker, Pérez is on the cusp of catapulting from a relatively obscure spot in the state Assembly to its most powerful position, the speaker's chair. Assembly Democrats are expected to formally vote him into office next month. A former union official who grew up in the neighborhoods of Highland Park and El Sereno and is a cousin of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Pérez bested more seasoned competitors in a long, behind-the-scenes battle for the speakership.

The city-owned Los Angeles Convention Center entered a new era Tuesday when a new general manager was named by the private company hired to run the facility. Anschutz Entertainment Group, which won a contract to run the center in October, named Brad Gessner to the post. He most recently served as general manager of the 2.6-million-square-foot San Diego Convention Center for six years. The L.A. Convention Center offers 720,000 square feet of exhibit space, 46,000 square feet in two event halls and 102,000 square feet of column-free space in a sky-lighted meeting room.

Billionaire Philip Anschutz tapped longtime finance man Dan Beckerman to take the helm of AEG after the sale of the company was halted Thursday. Beckerman will now serve as chief executive and president of Anschutz Entertainment Group Inc., replacing Tim Leiweke, who is leaving the company. AEG: A look back But who is Beckerman? Here's a rundown: -- Beckerman joined AEG in 1997 as chief financial officer of the Los Angeles Kings. -- Before he joined AEG, Beckerman was vice president of finance for the Los Angeles Clippers for two seasons.

The Emmy Awards are moving from the venerable Shrine Auditorium to the new Nokia Theatre in downtown L.A. The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences signed a 10-year deal with Anschutz Entertainment Group to stage the annual Emmys show at the 6,500-seat Nokia, starting with this year's show on Sept. 21. The Emmys' after-show Governors Ball will be held next door at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

Anschutz Entertainment Group named veteran music executive Randy Phillips as chief of its live-entertainment division, which has promoted tours by such acts as Britney Spears and Barry Manilow. Phillips, a former artist manager who ran the Red Ant record label, will oversee an operation that includes concert promoters AEG Concerts and Goldenvoice as well as music pay-per-view outfit Spring Communications.

Anschutz Entertainment Group said it settled a contract dispute with Nederlander Concerts and reached a new deal to share booking and promotion of events at Staples Center. Sources said the two firms reached a financial settlement to resolve a dispute about payments Nederlander guaranteed to Anschutz as part of its exclusive booking contract.

Philip Anschutz and the no-longer-for-sale AEG have been key players in sports and entertainment in Los Angeles. Here are some highlights: -- Oct. 1995: Denver-based billionaire Philip Anschutz and Southern California developer Ed Roski Jr. buy the Los Angeles Kings of the National Hockey League. -- May 1997: Anschutz and Roski announce a plan to revamp the L.A. Memorial Coliseum and bring a professional football team to the city by 2000. -- March 1998: Work begins on Staples Center, Anschutz and Roski's new downtown arena.

Re "Subsidies may aid L.A. Live," June 14 Let me get this straight. Staples Center owner Philip Anschutz is the 41st richest man in America. He, through the Anschutz Entertainment Group, is investing about $2.5 billion in the L.A. Live project. Yet he still needs an additional $30 million from a state bond fund that was voter approved for low-income housing. Considering the size of the project, this amount is a rounding error. I don't recall language in the proposition presented to the voters that said the money could be used in furtherance of a private development, but I might be mistaken.

Hoping that an outside manager can bring more dazzle to the Los Angeles Convention Center, City Council members agreed Wednesday to pay Anschutz Entertainment Group up to $350,000 a year to operate the dated downtown venue. The five-year contract provides AEG an annual base fee of $175,000 with the potential to double that if it meets certain targets, such as raising revenues and bookings at the 1970s-era facility. The unanimous vote culminated a nearly yearlong effort to find a private operator for the city-owned Convention Center and negotiate a contract that will benefit both the city and its new management team.

Michael Jackson's death nearly four years ago has been the subject of intense curiosity, endless media speculation and even a dramatic courtroom drama in which the King of Pop's doctor was found guilty of causing his death. But all that may end up being a warm-up act for the legal showdown set to begin Monday . In a wrongful death lawsuit, the singer's mother and three children accuse concert promoter Anschutz Entertainment Group of threatening to end Jackson's career if he failed to deliver on a series of comeback concerts in London and hiring the doctor who was later convicted of giving the singer a lethal dose of the anesthetic propofol.

Los Angeles officials agreed Wednesday to pursue a parallel track for redeveloping the city's Convention Center in the event that Anschutz Entertainment Group and the National Football League fail to reach agreement on the Farmers Field stadium downtown. Jan Perry, chair of a special City Council committee overseeing the AEG deal, said she remains hopeful that the city can continue to work with the entertainment giant in both drawing an NFL franchise and building the stadium in the L.A. Live area.

After seeking a buyer for months, the billionaire owner of entertainment giant AEG abruptly took the company off the market, leaving a parade of high-profile suitors empty-handed and damaging the prospect that professional football will return to Los Angeles any time soon. Philip Anschutz announced Thursday that he is retaining ownership of Anschutz Entertainment Group and parting ways with Chief Executive Tim Leiweke, the company's public face and force behind the development of L.A. Live and the plan to build an NFL stadium downtown.

Billionaire Philip Anschutz tapped longtime finance man Dan Beckerman to take the helm of AEG after the sale of the company was halted Thursday. Beckerman will now serve as chief executive and president of Anschutz Entertainment Group Inc., replacing Tim Leiweke, who is leaving the company. AEG: A look back But who is Beckerman? Here's a rundown: -- Beckerman joined AEG in 1997 as chief financial officer of the Los Angeles Kings. -- Before he joined AEG, Beckerman was vice president of finance for the Los Angeles Clippers for two seasons.

Philip Anschutz and the no-longer-for-sale AEG have been key players in sports and entertainment in Los Angeles. Here are some highlights: -- Oct. 1995: Denver-based billionaire Philip Anschutz and Southern California developer Ed Roski Jr. buy the Los Angeles Kings of the National Hockey League. -- May 1997: Anschutz and Roski announce a plan to revamp the L.A. Memorial Coliseum and bring a professional football team to the city by 2000. -- March 1998: Work begins on Staples Center, Anschutz and Roski's new downtown arena.

NEW YORK -- The Madison Square Garden Co. may be a logical bidder for Staples Center, but would not likely win an auction for the sports and entertainment venue, an analyst said. Anschutz Entertainment Group -- which owns Staples Center along with the Kings hockey team and Galaxy soccer team, among other assets -- has been put up for sale by billionaire Philip Anschutz. MSG would be a logical bidder for the teams and the venue, said Laura Martin, an analyst at Needham & Co. Inc. With a market capitalization of $3.1 billion, MSG would be too small to purchase all of AEG, she added.